Methods, Systems, and Products for Gesture-Activated Appliances

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for operating home appliances using gesture recognition. A sequence of video images is received and compared to a stored sequence of gesture images. A recognized gesture is associated to a home appliance and to an operation of the home appliance. An appliance controller causes a response to the recognized gesture to perform the operation of the home appliance.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.11/788,212, filed Apr. 19, 2007, and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. ______,which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/206,432 filed onAug. 18, 2005, entitled “Gesture Activated Home Appliance” which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/965,906 filed on Sep. 28,2001, entitled “Gesture Activated Home Appliance,” issued as U.S. Pat.No. 6,937,742 on Aug. 30, 2005, which are all incorporated herein byreference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to gesture recognition systems. Moreparticularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods foroperating a home appliance using gesture recognition.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Voice activated technology is a rapidly developing area of the computerworld. Today, many devices incorporate voice activation technology socertain functions of the device can be performed based on voicecommands. For example, many home appliances are equipped withvoice-activated technology as to allow a consumer to orally command, forexample, a lighting system to power on by using voice commands. Such afeature is particularly advantageous when a person cannot manuallyactivate a device because their hands are occupied or the device switchis in an inconvenient place.

For example, one may be carrying groceries into a house and is unable tomanually activate the light switch, consequently, if the lighting systemin the house has voice activated technology therein, the person maysimply say, for example, “lights on” to activate the lights. Thistechnology saves the person the trouble from having to put the groceriesdown, manually activate the lights, and then pick up the groceries. Theability to use voice-activated technology, of course, presumes that theuser is able to speak. Consequently, those persons who cannot speakcannot take advantage of voice-activated technology.

Gesture recognition is another rapidly developing area in the computerworld. Gesture recognition is not based on voice commands but, rather,allows a device to recognize certain gestures. The inventors, however,are not aware of any gesture recognition systems that are used inconjunction with the operation of home appliances. Therefore, there is aneed for systems and methods that use gesture recognition to operatehome appliances.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention satisfies the aforementioned need by providingsystems and methods for using gesture recognition to operate a homeappliance. In one embodiment of the present invention, an apparatusrecognizes a gesture and then causes a home appliance operationassociated with the gesture to be performed. For example, a firstgesture might be associated with powering on a home appliance and asecond gesture might be associated with powering off the home appliance.In this manner, a user can simply gesticulate to operate a homeappliance rather than operating the appliance manually.

Apparatus according to the invention for operating a home appliance caninclude an image receiver, an image processor, an operations processor,and an appliance controller. The image receiver, which can be a videocamera, for example, receives a continuous stream of images of a gestureperformed within the image receiver's field of view and provides a videosignal to the image processor. The video signal contains informationcorresponding to the continuous stream of gesture images. The imageprocessor receives the video signal and recognizes the gesture based onthe information contained in the video signal.

The image processor can include an image sampler and an imagecomparator. The image sampler can be used for sampling the continuousstream of gesture images to form a discrete sequence of gesture images.The image comparator can then compare the discrete sequence of gestureimages to each of one or more stored discrete gesture sequences, andrecognize the gesture based on the comparison.

The operations processor is coupled to the image processor foridentifying a home appliance operation associated with the gesture. Theoperations processor can identify the home appliance operation bycomparing the recognized gesture with each of a predefined set ofgestures. Each of the predefined gestures is associated with arespective home appliance operation.

The appliance controller is coupled to the operations processor forcausing the home appliance operation to be performed. The apparatus caninclude a switch that is coupled to the appliance controller and isadapted to be coupled to the home appliance. The switch is responsive tothe appliance controller for causing the home appliance operation to beperformed. The appliance controller can be a voltage generator forgenerating a voltage signal, or a pulse generator for generating avoltage pulse, that causes the home appliance operation to be performed.

The apparatus can also include a performance indicator for providing anindication that the home appliance operation has been performed. A datastore, readable by the image process, or storing data representative ofthe gesture and of the home appliance operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

Other features of the present invention are further apparent from thefollowing detailed description of the embodiments of the presentinvention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a device used to operate a home appliancein accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate the device of FIG. 1 connected to homeappliances; and

FIG. 3 is flowchart illustrating a method of operating a home appliancein accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

The present invention is directed to systems and methods for operating ahome appliance using the principles of gesture recognition technology.In this manner, a person may turn on an oven, for example, by performinga recognizable gesture associated with turning on the oven. Similarly,the person may also turn off the oven, set the oven temperature, turn onthe oven light, or cause the oven to perform any other operation byperforming a gesture associated with respective operation. Consequently,a user can gesticulate to operate a home appliance rather than manuallyactivate a switch or a button to operate the home appliance.

The present invention relates to apparatuses and methods for operating ahome appliance. The apparatus may be a computer, in whole or in part,specially constructed to perform the method of the invention, or it maybe a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by acomputer program stored in the computer. General purpose computingmachines may be used with programs written in accordance with theteachings herein, or a specialized computing apparatus may beconstructed to perform the method described herein.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a device 100 for operating a home appliance(not shown) using gesture recognition in accordance with the presentinvention. As shown, the device 100 includes an image receiver 110 forreceiving a continuous stream of gesture images. The image receiver 110may be any PC-based camera or the like without departing from theprinciples of the present invention. The image receiver 110 transmitsthe video signals to an image processor 120 by way of a cable 112. Thevideo signals may be sent in any format such as, for example, MPEG3format or the like without departing from the principles of the presentinvention.

The image processor 120 forms a discrete sequence of gesture imagesbased on the continuous stream of gesture images it receives from theimage recover 110. In this manner and in one embodiment of the presentinvention, the image processor contains an image sampler 120A forforming a discrete sequence of gesture images from the received gestureimages by sampling the continuous stream of images. In other words, theimage sampler 120A segments the continuous stream of images into aseries of frames or “snapshots.”

The image processor 120 also derives positional data of the gestures ineach frame, and compiles the positional data into a respective framedata set. The positional data in the frame data set is compared, in theimage comparator 120B, to each of a set of stored sequences ofpositional data making up one or more recognizable gestures i.e.,gestures already known to the system. Any gesture, such as, for example,a gesture associated with American Sign Language can be stored in a datastore 150. In this regard, the comparator 120B can search the data store150 to match the received gesture with a stored gesture by using thepositional data of the data frame set of the received gesture to thepositional data of one of the known sequences stored in the data store150. The image comparator 120B, based on the comparison, determineswhether the user within the field of view 115 of the image receiver 110has performed a recognizable gesture.

Thus, the image receiver 110 can receive a continuous image of agesture, which can be, for example, a person moving an arm horizontallyacross the chest. The image sampler 120A segments the gesture intoframes. The image processor 120 then obtains positional data from eachframe of the gesture sequence and compiles the data in a data frame set.Then, the image comparator 120B compares the positional data of the dataframe set to the positional data of the recognizable gestures stored inthe database.

Once a gesture is recognized (i.e., the system determines that thereceived image corresponds to a recognizable gesture), an operationsprocessor 130 connected to the image processor 120 identifies apredefined home appliance operation associated with the recognizedgesture. In one embodiment of the present invention, the operationsprocessor 130 determines, based on the recognized gesture, which of aplurality of predefined home appliance operations is to be performed. Inthis manner, the operations processor can access the data store 150 todetermine the predefined home appliance operation associated with therecognized gesture.

As shown and for example, one recognizable gesture 116 might includemotioning the letter “z” with the index finger of the hand. In thisregard, once the device 100 recognizes this gesture, the operationsprocessor 130 searches the data store 150 to determine which homeappliance operation is associated with motioning the letter “z” with theindex finger. For example, this gesture might be associated with turningon the appliance. Another recognizable gesture, such as moving one armhorizontally across the chest, for example, might be associated withturning off the home appliance.

An appliance controller 140 is connected to the operations processor 130for causing the predefined home appliance operation to be performed. Inone embodiment of the present invention, the appliance controller isconnected to a switch 180. In this manner, for example, if thepredefined home appliance operation is turning on the appliance, theappliance controller 140 can be configured to transmit an electricalsignal that actuates switch 180 that turns on the appliance.Consequently, the appliance controller 140 is configured to actuate thepower switch 180 that turns on the appliance if the gesture associatedwith powering on the appliance is performed and recognized by the device100. In this regard, the appliance controller 140 may be a voltagegenerator for generating a voltage signal that actuates the power switch180. Alternatively, the appliance controller 140 can be a pulsegenerator for generating a voltage pulse to actuate a switch 180 thatmay or may not be located within the appliance.

The device 100 in accordance with the present invention can also includea performance indicator 160, such as, for example, a sound generatorconnected to the appliance controller 140. The performance indicator 160indicates the predefined home appliance operation has been performed. Inone embodiment of the present invention, the performance indicator 160is a sound generator that emits, in response to the appliance controller140 causing the predefined home appliance operation to be performed, asound to notify the user that the home appliance operation has occurred.This method of indication is particular useful if the home applianceoperation cannot be visually verified, e.g. turning on an oven or thelike.

In one embodiment of the invention, each home appliance operation isassociated with a different audible sound. For example, immediatelyafter turning on the appliance, the sound generator may emit a singlebeep. Conversely, immediately after turning off the appliance, the soundgenerator may emit a double beep. This notification method provides theuser with an audible indication of what particular home applianceoperation has been performed.

FIGS. 2A and 2B each illustrates the apparatus of FIG. 1 connected to ahome appliance. As shown in FIG. 2A, lighting system 220 is connected toan apparatus 100 in accordance with the present invention. As describedabove, the apparatus 100 receives images by way of image receiver 110and transmits the images to an image processor 120 through cable 112.The image processor 120 recognizes a sequence of gesture images based onthe stream of gesture images received by the image receiver 110.

Once a gesture is recognized, an operations processor 130 connected tothe image processor 120 identifies a predefined home appliance operationassociated with that recognized gesture. An appliance controller 140 isconnected to the operations processor 130 for causing the predefinedhome appliance operation to be performed. In this manner, for example,if the home appliance operation is turning on the lighting system 220,the appliance controller 140 is configured to turn on the lightingsystem 320 using switch 229. Consequently, the appliance controller 140transmits a signal by way of cable 230 to the lighting system 220 if thegesture associated with powering on the lighting system 220 is performedand recognized. A performance indicator 160 connected to the appliancecontroller 140 emits, in response to the appliance controller 140turning on the lighting system 220, an indication to notify the userthat the lighting system 220 is on.

Similarly, as shown in FIG. 2B, an oven 260 is connected to an apparatus100 in accordance with the present invention by cable 265. Again, asdescribed above, the apparatus 100 receives images of a gesture 116 byway of image receiver 110 and transmits the images to image processor120 through cable 112. Image processor 120 recognizes a sequence ofgesture images based on the stream of gesture images received by theimage receiver 110.

Once a gesture is recognized, an operations processor 130 connected tothe image processor 120 identifies which predefined home applianceoperation is associated with the recognized gesture. An appliancecontroller 140 is connected to the operations processor 130 for causingthe predefined home appliance operation associated with the recognizedgesture to be performed. In this manner, for example, if the homeappliance operation is turning off the oven 260, the appliancecontroller 140 is configured to turn off the oven 260 by way of switch264. Consequently, the appliance controller 140 causes the oven 260 tobe turned on if the gesture associated with powering on the oven 260 isperformed and recognized. A performance indicator 160 connected to theappliance controller 140 indicates, after the appliance controller 140is turned on, that the oven 260 is on.

The operations processor 130 can also include programming and logic thatenable it to provide more sophisticated signals to the home appliance.For example, where the home appliance is an oven, the operationsprocessor can be programmed to send any of a number of various signalsto the oven, thereby causing the oven to perform any number ofoperations. For example, a first recognizable gesture can be associatedwith turning the oven on, a second gesture can be associated withsetting the oven temperature, a third gesture can be associated withsetting a cooking timer, a fourth gesture can be associated with turningon the oven's internal light, and a fifth gesture can be associated withturning the oven off. Each such recognizable gesture would be associatedwith the corresponding operation in the system's data store.

Depending on the gesture the recognized, the operations processor cansend a signal to the oven's computer that emulates the signal the oven'scomputer would have received is the user had pushed the appropriatebuttons on the oven itself. For example, pushing the oven on buttonmight cause a certain signal to be sent to the oven's computer. Theoven's computer then turn the oven on. Accordingly, the operationsprocessor of the invention can send the same signal directly to theoven's computer, thereby causing the oven's computer to turn the ovenon.

FIG. 3 is flowchart illustrating a method of operating a home appliancein accordance with the present invention. In the method, a user performsa gesture within the field of view of an image receiver, such as acamera. Thus, the image receiver receives a continuous stream of gestureimages at step 300. The system uses the continuous image stream todetermine whether the gesture that the user is making is one of a set ofone or more recognizable gestures. In one embodiment of the presentinvention, the gesture is recognized by first forming a discretesequence of gesture images from the continuous image stream at step 310.Then, using positional data in a data frame set derived from each frame,the discrete sequence of gesture images is compared, at step 320, to aset of one or more stored sequences of discrete gesture images. Based onthe comparison, the system determines, at step 330, whether theperformed gesture is one of the set of recognizable gestures.

At step 340, the recognized gesture is identified with a predefined homeappliance operation. The recognized gesture is compared to a set ofstored gestures, each gesture being associated with a predefined homeappliance operation. Once the predefined operation identified with therecognized gesture is found, the system causes the predefined homeappliance operation to be performed at step 350. At step 360, anindication can be provided to indicate to the user that the operationhas been performed.

Thus, there have been described systems and methods for operating a homeappliance using gesture recognition technology. Though the invention hasbeen described with reference to a device that is external andconnectable to a home appliance, it is it contemplated that such adevice may be integrated into such an appliance. Consequently, thedevice in accordance with the principles of the present invention shouldnot be limited to a device that is separate from the home appliance.Those skilled in the art will appreciate that numerous other changes andmodifications can be made to the preferred embodiments of the invention,and that such changes and modifications can be made without departingfrom the spirit of the invention. It is intended, therefore, that theappended claims cover all such equivalent variations as fall within thetrue spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A method for operating an appliance, comprising: receiving a sequenceof video images; comparing the sequence of video images to a storedsequence of gesture images; associating a recognized gesture to anappliance; associating the recognized gesture to an operation of theappliance; and causing an appliance controller to respond to therecognized gesture to perform the operation of the appliance.
 2. Themethod according to claim 1, further comprising generating a voltage tooperate the appliance.
 3. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising receiving an indication that the operation has beenperformed.
 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprisingopening a switch connected to the appliance controller.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising closing a switch connected tothe appliance controller.
 6. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising sampling a video signal to obtain the sequence of videoimages.
 7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising setting atemperature in response to the gesture.
 8. The method according to claim1, further comprising turning on a light in response to the gesture. 9.The method according to claim 1, further comprising segmenting a videosignal to obtain the sequence of video images.
 10. The method accordingto claim 1, further comprising deriving positional data of the gesturewithin a frame.
 11. The method according to claim 10, further comprisingcomparing the positional data corresponding to the gesture to each of aset of stored sequences of positional data to determine if the gestureis the recognized gesture.
 12. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising generating a sound to indicate the operation has beenperformed.
 13. The method according to claim 1, further comprisinggenerating a distinct sound for each different operation performed. 14.The method according to claim 1, further comprising comparing thesequence of video images to stored sign language gestures.
 15. Themethod according to claim 1, further comprising powering on theappliance in response to the gesture.
 16. The method according to claim1, further comprising powering off the appliance in response to thegesture.
 17. A system for operating an appliance, the system operativeto: receive a sequence of video images; compare the sequence of videoimages to a stored sequence of gesture images; associate a recognizedgesture to an appliance; associate the recognized gesture to anoperation of the appliance; and cause an appliance controller to respondto the recognized gesture to perform the operation of the appliance. 18.The system according to claim 17, further operative to indicate that theoperation has been performed.
 19. The system according to claim 17,further operative to power on the appliance in response to the gesture.20. The system according to claim 17, further operative to power off theappliance in response to the gesture.